Grocery Run
by NicktheHuman
Summary: The teens of class 1-A need to eat, and UA provides a monthly stipend for the students to get their own food as an exercise of cooperative financial budgeting. This month, Midoriya and Asui get sent out for the task.


Disclaimer: This is purely a fan work and I own nothing

* * *

Midoriya Izuku was, as many of his classmates knew, easily flustered. Still, he managed to keep his wits about him as he grabbed a grocery cart and brought it back over to Tsuyu.

The school gave each building a monthly stipend for food. It was for the entire building, and it was considered a team building exercise for them to cooperate on a budget and grocery list, as well as an exercise in responsible spending.

It worked out fairly well, but usually a boy and girl would get volunteered to go do the run. This month, it just happened to fall on Froppy and Deku. This wouldn't be a problem if they hadn't been pushed out the door late on a Friday night because they were running low on food; they were both pretty tired after a long week of training. But the begging look on the faces of their friendlier classmates was enough to tug at the heartstrings of the two green-headed heroes in training.

He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. After all, he and Tsuyu had always been friends ever since the USJ incident. Even if girls made him...jumpy, she was easy to talk to. Reliable.

Tsuyu herself, was rotating the grocery list. Momo had attempted to write down everyone's requests as orderly as possible, but Kaminari, Mina, or Sero would periodically run up and jot something down sloppily, upside down or sideways. "Kero..."

"Problem, Asui?" He asked, returning with a cart.

She lowered the list and gave him an exasperated look.

"Tsu," he corrected, flinching at his own error. "Problem, Tsu?"

She showed him the piece of paper that had scribbled partially covering the list of essentials Momo and Iida had written up.

Midoriya inhaled sharply. "Well, we got our work cut out for us."

"Kero...well, let's start with produce. I can read most of that," Tsuyu sighed. "My siblings used to do this with my parents shopping list."

"Good call," he replied, pushing the cart over towards the vegetables, "I can hear Iida lecturing us the importance of vitamins and minerals in our diets."

He briefly mimicked how Iida talked with his whole arms, resembling some kind of human windmill. Tsuyu chuckled, a few ribbits escaping her lips. "If you don't make it as a hero, you could go into impressions, kero."

"Nah," he replied, "only my All Might impression is any good." He held up a carrot and put on his All Might face. "EAT THIS!"

Tsuyu erupted into a fit of giggles. "You're the next Symbol of Peace," she joked.

Midoriya laughed nervously. _If only she knew._

Stocked on fruits and vegetables, the next section was grains. Despite the defaced list, they could tell bread and rice were needed...But not how much.

"Twenty teenagers for a month...we'll need a lot, right, kero?" Tsuyu wondered aloud, touching her finger to her chin. "Five boxes?"

"Six," Midoriya suggested, "Kirishima has been..er...eating his feelings."

"Kero?" Tsuyu asked.

He shifted his eyes nervously. "Can you keep this a secret?"

She nodded.

"Well..." Midoriya explained.

* * *

A few nights prior, Midoriya was woken to a strange sound in the kitchen. It was a distinct crunching noise and a voice. He couldn't make out what kind of noise it was, but it was concerning to say the least.

Sneaking down the stairs, he peeked into the kitchen to see Kirishima, eating raw rice straight from the box by the handful, sobbing quietly to himself.

Midoriya cringed and tried to sneak away, but the stair creaked under him, causing Kirishima to look up. The two exchanged the world's most uncomfortable eye contact.

 _I guess a hero doesn't run from people in need,_ Izuku scolded himself. He walked quietly to the kitchen. "You okay, buddy?"

Kirishima's whole face screwed up. "M-Mina dumped me..."

The hot blooded boy had to stop himself from sobbing, and shoved another handful of crunchy rice into his mouth, sending chunks of it everywhere. Iida would have a fit in the morning.

Panic went off in Deku's head. He had absolutely zero experience in comforting a friend after a break up. Making his best effort, he grabbed the redheads shoulder and gave what he assumed was a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry, man. What happened?"

"I-I forgot our date when I was working out with Baku-bro," the Red Riot quivered. "She said I didn't care about her and told me we were finished. So I'm eating rice until my heart stops hurting."

"I'm sorry man," Midoriya repeated, earnestly, "we all make mistakes. Maybe she'll come around. Give it some time and apologize, maybe."

Kirishima sniffled. "You think that will work?"

Izuku shrugged. "I can't say for certain. But owning up to your mistakes is super manly, if nothing else."

The appeal to Kirishima's manliness made him smile slightly. "You're right. Thanks, man. Please don't tell anyone you found me like this? It's not the manliest way to deal with things."

"Of course. Glad I could help." Midoriya replied.

* * *

"And he's still been doing it, so we should grab an extra box," Midoriya explained.

"Kero. That's...different." Tsuyu said, repressing the urge to laugh.

They moved to the next aisle and stocked up on ramen. Tsuyu squinted at the list and croaked, "it says, 'don't forget some shrimp flavor you useless Deku.'"

Rolling his eyes, Midoriya went to grab a few, but was stopped as a tongue wrapped around his wrist. He blushed and froze, turning to look at Tsuyu as she withdrew her tongue.

"Kero," she ribbited, "rudeness doesn't get rewarded. Bakugo can eat what the rest of us get if he isn't going to have manners."

He smirked. "You're right. Now what?"

"Cereal and coffee, kero." She replied.

They went to the next row over and began grabbing the sensible, nutritional cereal Iida had commanded the class eat, because again, being a hero meant being in peak physical form.

Tsuyu grabbed two of the biggest boxes off the top shelf with her tongue, and placed them in the cart. But as she turned around, she raised an eyebrow to see Midoriya had walked off, and was walking back with a colorful box, embarrassed.

"Kero," she inquired, "no one wrote that on the list..."

She inspected the box: All Mighty Crunch. It had a picture of All Might on it, with the tag line: take your taste buds beyond! Now with 30% more marshmallow Plus Signs for that Plus Ultra taste!

Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck. "I-it's my favorite, ever since I was a kid. I figured it wouldn't hurt..."

Tsuyu chuckled. "That stuff's terrible for you! Kero, my parents had to ban it because my brother would be bouncing off the walls any time he had it." She paused, and touched her finger to her chin again. "...it is good though."

"C-can you keep another secret?" Midoriya asked, nervously.

Tsuyu nodded and gave another, "kero," to confirm.

"I've actually been keeping a secret stash of this in my room," He admitted, scratching his nose, "it's my guilty pleasure food if I have a bad day."

Tsuyu smiled. "Midoriya..."

"Y-yeah?"

"That's adorable!" She laughed. "I keep some snacks in my room too, kero. Go ahead."

Midoriya's face burned from the compliment. "Th-thanks Tsu."

"One condition though, kero." Tsuyu added.

"What's that?" He asked.

"I'm allowed to sneak over to your room and have some." She croaked.

The thought of her sneaking to his room did nothing to help his embarrassment, but he nodded in agreement. "O-of c-course!"

Internally, he was freaking out as he followed her in the aisles. A girl had never called him adorable. Well. Toga probably had but she was terrifying and evil, so he didn't count that one.

Now that he thought about it though...Tsuyu was pretty cute too. He liked how she would put her finger to her chin to think, and she was surprising witty.

As they began to finish up, she paused, snapping Deku from his trance. "We should get ice cream, kero."

"Huh?" He asked, "why? Is that on the list?"

She shook her head. "Would you mind keeping a secret for me, kero?"

"Of course, Tsu," he assured her.

"Kero..."

* * *

Tsuyu was returning to her room after a nice, warm shower. It had been a rough day of hero training, so she was ready to relax in her bed and vegetate on her laptop.

But as she was walking to her room, she heard a noise...it sounded like it was coming from Mina's room.

Usually, Tsuyu tried to mind her own business unless a friend needed help. However, the normally peppy girl sounded absolutely distraught. Curiosity besting her, Tsuyu made her way to the girl's room, and was surprised to see the door already cracked open. Peeking through the opening, she could see a floating shirt and pair of shorts consoling Mina as the acidic heroine shoveled ice cream straight from the carton.

"I don't understand!" The pink girl choked through tears, "I reserved spots at his favorite place to eat! And he didn't even show up! All he cares about is working out with that stupid Bakugo."

"Aw, babe," Hagakure replied, softly, "I'm sure he didn't mean it. He's just dumb and gets wrapped up in workouts. You knew he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box."

"I hate his stupid face so much!" Mina sobbed, shoving cookies and cream ice cream down her mouth. "And I miss him so much!"

Tsuyu slowly backed away. She'd let Hagakure handle this one; it seemed to be her element.

* * *

"Uh...huh." Midoriya replied, absorbing the story. "Well, ice cream it is." He reached into the Freezer to grab a carton, knowing it was dangerous for Tsuyu to go in.

"Last thing is milk, kero." Tsuyu said, squinting at her list.

As they grabbed it, they heard an odd creaking noise coming from the aisle they just left. The two stopped and looked around, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. But as Midoriya took the gallon of milk out of the freezer, he turned to see an aisle tipping, food beginning to fall over the floor, knocking down an elderly lady as the structure began to fall towards her.

In an instant, Midoriya had activated his Full Cowl, closed the distance between himself and the lady, and caught the structure before it landed on her. "Whoa, are you alright?!"

The old lady moved herself out from under the collapsed food. "My goodness! Thank you, dear!"

Some store employees came and righted the structure. Sighing in relief, Midoriya backed up, and the old lady shook his hand for a good five minutes, and a manager came by to make sure everyone was alright.

Finally, Midoriya was freed back to Tsuyu. She was giving him a funny look, and tilted her her head to the side as she asked. "Are you alright? Come on, let's go before the ice cream melts, kero."

"Yeah, I'm okay." He sighed, "Can't get a day of peace, huh?"

"Kero," she replied, "that was pretty cool though. You were over there before I even realized what had happened."

Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "Ah, it was nothing."

"You missed a chance to do your All Might impression though and say, 'I AM HERE,' though." Tsuyu teased. "That would have really sealed the deal."

He laughed. "I'll remember that next time I save any little old ladies. Which sounds a lot less cool now that I say it out loud."

Tsuyu gave him an awkward side-hug while they walked. "I think you're pretty cool, kero."

"A-ah t-thanks!" He stuttered.

* * *

As they checked out and carried their food to the bus stop, there was an uncomfortable silence. It was unlike Tsuyu to look noticeably uncomfortable, so after a few moments, Izuku asked, "What's wrong, Tsu?"

"Nothing, kero," she fidgeted, "we should do this again sometime is all."

He furrowed his brows, confused. "What, the grocery shopping? I guess it's not a bad chore. I wouldn't mind doing it again next month, I suppose."

Tsuyu slapped her oversized hand to her forehead. "N-not what I meant, kero. I'm trying to ask you out on a date, but I'm being awkward about it because I don't know what I'm doing."

Straightforward as always, her blunt answer made the boy go absolutely crimson. "A-ah I didn't re-realize y-you m-meant like that!"

"Kero, it's okay if you aren't interested," Tsuyu answered, blushing as well, "I just like spending time with you. You make me laugh and you're pretty cute when you do cool stuff without realizing."

"AH!" Midoriya yelled, trying to cover his face with his arms, but instead whapped himself in the face with a bag of groceries, "I-I'd love to T-Tsu, you're a lot of fun to hang out with t-too!"

 _Adorable._ She thought as she laughed.

As the bus pulled up, she figured they could plan the date tomorrow; Midoriya's brain seemed to shut down for the night out of embarrassment.


End file.
